Teaching tech helps bridge the digital divide

Major tech companies have blamed the lack of diversity in their workforce on a “pipeline problem,” meaning a lack of available talent. To address the vacuum, an increasing number of nonprofit programs are focused on expanding the representation of minorities in the tech sector. These nonprofits are picking up the slack in an area where California public schools have lacked either the resources or the foresight to prepare students for this vibrant sector.

Mission Bit offers semester-long coding classes taught by professional software engineers for low-income communities. Black Girls Code offers computer skills training to young girls of color in the Bay Area. Through successful partnerships with tech companies such as Google and ThoughtWorks, Black Girls Code has expanded the program from one location to 14 chapters in U.S. cities and Johannesburg,. The Hidden Genius Project mentors African American high school students in Oakland and Richmond along with teaching business and coding skills.

Two weeks ago, Mission Bit hosted their Demo Day in San Francisco, where students got the chance to compete for prizes and bragging rights, showing off their games and websites to parents and a panel of judges. One team debuted a two-dimensional, side-scrolling game using playable farm animals similar to the Super Mario Brothers series and complete with catchy music, high scores and carefully designed background art.

The audience oohed and aahed when an all-girls team took the stage to talk about the design, setbacks and message of their website focused on social justice issues like police brutality. Visitors to the site could click on different highlighted pictures that would reveal statistics and infographics. Another team created an online database dedicated to providing resources on transitioning for transgender teens. Since 2013, Mission Bit has trained more than 1,000 students and plans to expand their courses into East Oakland next year.

“The language of the 21st century is the language of code,” said Zakiya Harris, co-founder and chief education officer at Hack the Hood. Harris is hopeful in the ability of students to create solutions to the problems their communities are facing. “We want young people to fuse their personal passions with technology.”

Hack the Hood incorporates leadership and entrepreneurial workshops that focus on training students on building professional portfolios, pitching products to investors and code-switching.

“Entrepreneurship is central to what we want to put forth in the boot camp,” said Max Gibson, a lead instructor for Hack the Hood’s boot camp and co-founder of online magazine and event platform Wine and Bowties. “We want to shift them from being consumers of tech to creators of tech by thinking critically about their environment and creating their own platforms.”

With a lack of access to computer education, potential talent is overlooked, contributing to the low number of minorities in the tech workforce. Eli Kennedy, CEO of the Oakland-based Level Playing Field Institute, believes that exposing students to computer science at an early age is a strong factor in their readiness to study at top schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The students from affluent communities are more likely to have parents or family with experience in the area of tech, so it’s like having an inside track to these companies,” Kennedy said. “While those from affluent backgrounds may find interest in developing convenience apps like ride-sharing services, low-income students may be more invested in using tech to fix social problems like lack of access to fresh groceries.”

Diversity in the workforce isn’t about the optics; it’s about tapping into the talents of students who will be responsible for creating solutions to the problems their communities are facing.